Be A Writer.

This past week Stacey has posted several great ideas about ways she is going to get her students excited about writing.  If you’ve not seen them, then check out her posts from this week — you’ll see meeting area supply boxes, gift wrapping, and writer’s notebook enhancements.
Next week I’m leading a four day training for [...]

Ruth’s Day in a Sentence.

Head spinning with ideas and plans and items to do, while attempting to balance my many roles.

Teachers & Writers: V39, #3

If you haven’t already seen the Summer 2008 Issue of Teachers & Writers, which is published by the Teachers & Writers Collaborative, then I HIGHLY suggest picking it up soon. The Summer Issue is completely devoted to comic books in the classroom.
At first, I wasn’t so sure that this issue of Teachers [...]

Inspiring Words for the Inside of Students’ Writer’s Notebooks

For the past two years I’ve included “My Writer’s Notebook/Diamond Search” by Brod Bagert inside of every student’s writer’s notebook. However, in addition to Barert’s Poem this year, I’m also going to be putting some writerly advice inside of the kids’ notebooks. These pieces of “advice,” combined with the gift-wrapping of [...]

A Call for “Day in a Sentence” Submissions

We’re happy to be hosting “Day in a Sentence” here at Two Writing Teachers this week. If you’re new to “Day in a Sentence,” which is similar to “Poetry Friday,” then just follow these steps:
Boil down your day (or your week) into a single thoughtful sentence.
Use the comment feature on THIS post to post [...]

Ruth’s SOLS: What’s your mom do?

Yesterday afternoon, my oldest daughter and I were driving home from school shopping.  Our conversation was one in which I was asking questions regarding important info that she should know – things like telephone number; address; parents’ names — and she was answering.  Then came this snippet:
Me:  What’s my job?
Hannah:  What do you mean?
Me:  Where do [...]

Ruth’s Memoir Monday: I remember.

I remember lazy summer days with nothing to do but read a book cover-to-cover.
I remember summers filled with professional development nearly every week.
I remember dinner conversations that were entirely devoted to the happenings of my classroom.
I remember reading as many professional books as I could get my hands on.
I remember arriving at school at 6 [...]

Around the Papers & in the News

I’ve been perusing newspapers online and found some articles worthy of sharing:

At Struggling School, Pride Displaces Failure

By WINNIE HU

Published: July 20, 2008

Rising test scores highlight a year of ambitious change at the beleaguered Newton Street School in Newark.

At This Summer School, Those Who Teach, Learn

By WINNIE HU

Published: July 29, 2008

The Scarsdale Teachers Institute is one [...]

Meeting Area Supply Boxes for Workshop-Related Things

I put the supplies I purchased earlier today into my kids’ Meeting Area Supply Boxes I purchased on Sunday. They don’t have much in them since I wanted to keep it simple… just the basics of what they’d need on the rug for the active engagement of a minilesson or while they’re creating plan [...]

Stacey’s S.O.L.S.

I spent an inordinate amount of time picking out the exact supplies I needed for my students’ Meeting Area Supplies Boxes. I was almost set, but realized I needed contact lens solution. Hence, I parked my wagon by the end-cap of the aisle while I went to pick out the solution. I [...]

SOLSC

Please link your posts here by commenting since Mr. Linky isn’t working.

Awards

We received an Arte y Pico Award for the work we do here at TWT by a blog entitled “There Is No Such Thing As a G-d-Forsaken Town.” Thank you for that honor!
Essentially this award is like a Meme. There are rules for paying it forward after your blog gets recognized. They [...]

Link your post here!

It’s that time of the week again! Please link your post here using Mr. Linky.

NOTE: We’ve been having trouble with Mr. Linky, so if you want others to read your post, then please leave a comment with your URL in case Mr. Linky doesn’t fix itself today! Sorry for the inconvenience.

Stacey’s M.M.: Teaching

I graduated from college with a B.A. in Communication and a minor in U.S. History. Even though I decided to move to NYC to work in the cosmetics industry, I secretly wanted to become a teacher. However, due to the low salaries, I decided against it, even though I loved the two years [...]

Meeting Area Supplies

Penny Pencil Cases

Originally uploaded by teachergal

I found pencil cases on sale for $.01 at Staples today. I decided to buy them so that the kids could have everything they need for minilessons with them at the meeting area. (In the past, kids always had to search for pencils or pens prior to the [...]

The Essence of Workshop Teaching

I woke up early this morning and decided to get started on the PPT for my presentation at the 2008 Fall NEATE Conference in Nashua, NH. The title is, “INSPIRING CHILDREN TO WRITE: Teaching Writing Workshop with Our Notebooks Wide-Open,” which is very similar to the title I used when I presented at [...]

Some photos

In case you’re interested to see some photos from our little reunion in Indiana, they’re in the digital scrapbook below.

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Literacy Gifts

Jen, Sarah, and Ruth gave me some fantastic ideas about ways to make the launch of writer’s notebooks and using the classroom library more exciting for children in September. I thought their ideas were brilliant and will be doing both this-coming school year.

Classroom Library

Semi-organize the books in the classroom library before the start of [...]

M.M. Inspiration

I think nearly all of the Memoir Mondays participants are teachers. Hence, the reason my weekly charges are just for inspiration in case you need help coming up with an idea.

I was sitting at my computer last night and a photo of my second religious school class popped up on the screen. The [...]

For Art’s Sake!!!

Whenever I think of an art-related activity to do with my students that isn’t an actual craft project, I always ask myself, “Will they get something out of this or am I doing art work art’s sake?” In case you’re wondering what I mean by art for art’s sake, that means doing an art [...]

The wrecking has begun!

Ruth gave me a copy of Wreck This Journal by Keri Smith when I arrived in Indiana. Essentially, the purpose of this book is to explore “creative destruction,” which is totally new to me since I care for my writer’s notebooks. However, that might be the reason Ruth got this for me… to [...]

Meeting Areas in Upper Elementary Classrooms

Ro left a comment a couple of days ago asking about meeting areas in upper elementary school classrooms. I’ve been corresponding with her, but thought that it might be useful to open up a bit of my thinking on the site.
I believe it was Don Graves who said that having the kids in your [...]

WE DID IT!!!

TWT on Two Computers at Courthouse Coffee

Originally uploaded by teachergal

As you know, Ruth and I got together to work on our presentation for NCTE this past week. Now that I’m back home, I’m marveling at the fact that we got SOOOOO much accomplished. We started out at Courthouse Coffee on Wednesday Morning with [...]

Poetry Friday: An Hommage to My Co-Blogger’s Home State

The Official Poem of Indiana, which is written by Arthur Franklin Mapes:
“Indiana”
God crowned her hills with beauty,
Gave her lakes and winding streams,
Then He edged them all with woodlands
As the settings for our dreams.
Lovely are her moonlit rivers,
Shadowed by the sycamores,
Where the fragrant winds of summer
Play along the willowed shores.
Click here to read the rest of [...]

Photo Fridays: An Opportunity to Write About Photographs

Late Sunset over Lake Winona

Originally uploaded by teachergal

I marveled, twice, about the fact that the sun sets later in Indiana than it does in Rhode Island (i.e. because it’s on the western part of the Eastern Time Zone). Therefore, after Ruth, Christi, and I parted from Jen, Cathy, and Sarah, I detoured to the [...]